People form social bonds easily and quickly without specific circumstances

Virtual game of ball toss including the ostracising of participants, this led to lower ratings of belonging, self esteem, control and meaningful existence, even if this ostracisation was by a hated outgroup (Gonsalkorale & Williams, 2007)

No societies exist in which people don't form connections with others

People identify with others automatically, even over trivial commonalities

An individualist culture will encourage people to be motivated by personal goals, whereas a collectivist culture will focus on group goals which are to be achieved for the common good (Engin & McKeown, 2012)

This could explain why japanese people work better in groups

Person-oriented culture emphasizes the use of innovative motivational practices (emphasising freedom and entrepreneurship), with the aim of developing individuals and their work. The task-oriented culture promotes the use of traditional motivation tools (in IT)

Shah & Gardner (2013):

Japanese children prefer puzzles they are bad at and americans prefer ones that they are already good at

American workers slack off in groups but Japanese work harder

What is goal contagion?

Individuals may automatically adopt and pursue a goal that is implied by another person’s behavior (Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin, 2004)

Participants were briefly exposed to behavioral information implying a specific goal and were then given the opportunity to act on the goal in a different way and context.

Pervasive social goals of ingratiating, being accurate, helping others, seeking sex, earning money, when perceived in others, will become active in the self and influence subsequent behaviour (Chaiken, Giner-Sorolla, & Chen, 1996)

What is the life history theory?

The course by which one pursues fundamental human goals for growth, reproduction and survival - (Roff, 1992)

Must divide energy into either somatic or reproductive efforts, and the way we do this underpins our personality traits

Somatic efforts, such as learning, enable individuals to generate better offspring in the future. Without these somatic efforts, reproductive efforts might not generate offspring that will thrive.

Without reproductive efforts, however, individuals might not generate any offspring.

A bias towards somatic efforts is called a slow life history strategy, whereas a bias towards reproductive efforts is called a fast life history strategy, that is, when individuals demonstrate this bias, they often reproduce quickly, soon after the reach sexual maturity.

the variation in age at first birth, with shorter life expectancy predicting earlier age at first birth (Griskevicius et al, 2010).

For individuals who grew up relatively poor, mortality cues led them to value the present and gamble for big immediate rewards. Conversely, for individuals who grew up relatively wealthy, mortality cues led them to value the future and avoid risky gambles. (Griskevicius et al., 2011)

Life History strategies developed during childhood appear to lie dormant in safe, benign environments